FW: National Metadata Seminar, 6 March 1997

[Tony Boston <tony@erin.gov.au>]

This report on the National Metadata Seminar at the National Library in
March may be of interest to ozmeta-l subscribers.

Tony Boston
ERIN
----- Begin Included Message -----

>From cirg-l@nla.gov.au Wed Apr  2 17:32 EST 1997
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 17:32:20 +1000
Reply-To: cirg-l@nla.gov.au
Originator: cirg-l@nla.gov.au
Sender: cirg-l@nla.gov.au
From: Adrian Cunningham <ACUNNING@nla.gov.au>
To: tony@erin.gov.au
Subject: FW: National Metadata Seminar, 6 March 1997
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 5754

>THE WAY AHEAD FOR INTERNET RESOURCE DISCOVERY
>NATIONAL METADATA SEMINAR, 6 MARCH 1997
>
>The National Metadata Seminar held at the National Library of Australia
>on 6 March 1997 attracted an audience of almost 300 people.  Those
>attending were from all sectors of the community who are interested in
>progressing the use of metadata for the Internet.  They gathered to hear
>international experts in the field speak on the following topics: 
>
>* The origins and objectives of the Dublin Core (Stuart Weibel, Senior
>  Research Scientist, OCLC Office of Research)
>
>* The Warwick Framework: providing a context for the Dublin Core and
>  other metadata (Carl Lagoze, Digital Library Research Group, Cornell
>  University)
> 
>* Metadata projects and activities in Australia (Renato Iannella, DSTC)
>
>* Metadata developments and eLib and European projects (Rachel Heery, UKOLN)
>
>* Metadata, MARC and the Dublin Core (Rebecca Guenther, Library of Congress)
>
>* Use of Dublin Core by the Museum Community (John Perkins, Consortium
>  of the Computer Interchange of Museum Information, CIMI)
>
>* GILS - what it is and where is it going (Eliot Christian, United States
>  Geological Survey)
>
>* PICS and the Dublin Core (Philip DesAutels, World Wide Web Consortium).
>
>Brief presentations about the EdNA Vocational Education and Training project
>and the Nordic Metadata Project were also given to the Seminar by Jack
>Gilding (EdNA) and Juha Hakala (National Library of Finland).
>
>The summing-up talk entitled 'Metadata in action - the way ahead' was
>given by Eric Wainwright, Deputy Director-General, National Library of
>Australia and Chair of the Information Management Steering Committee of
>OGIT.  Mr Wainwright said that to move forward it would be necessary to
>communicate and foster cooperation, use common procedures and standards, and
>build partnerships.  To achieve this all sectors (publishers and creators,
>collecting institutions, bibliographic agencies and technical developers)
>would need to be brought together and action be taken at all levels -
>organisation, sector and cross sector.  Mr Wainwright suggested a number of
>ways in which Australia could move forward in metadata implementation. 
>These included using:
>
>* existing sectoral mechanisms to focus on new metadata issues (e.g.
>  libraries - the successor to the Australian Committee on Cataloguing;
>  archives - Australian Society of Archivists)
>
>* lead agency roles for information, standards involvement etc. (National
>  Library of Australia, Australian Archives, National Museum of Australia,
>  AUSLIG etc.)
>
>* cross-sectoral technical groups formed through cultural agencies and
>  the Commonwealth Government, e.g. the Australian Cultural Network, OGIT,
>  Information Management Steering Committee
>
>* research and development organisations such as DSTC (Distributed Systems
>  Technology Centre).
>
>Australia should continue to be involved in and take advantage of
>international metadata activities and developments such as the Dublin
>Core and Warwick Framework, PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection),
>GILS (Government Information Locator Service), registries and resolvers.
>
>Following this talk, Warwick Cathro (Assistant Director-General, Services
>to Libraries Division, National Library of Australia) chaired a discussion
>on the continuing process for metadata implementation in Australia.  During
>the discussion a number of suggestions were made which are currently under
>consideration by the National Library.  These included:
>
>* continue Australia's contribution to international developments including
>  participation at conferences such as the Dublin Core workshops;
>
>* involve commercial organisations in activities;
>
>* convene joint meetings of representatives of all sectors - cultural,
>  government, and commercial, to guide the process of metadata
>  harmonisation and implementation in Australia;
>
>* set up an Australian metadata email discussion list involving all
>  sectors;
>
>* establish a metadata web site which will provide Australian information
>  and point to other sites such as IFLA and DSTC;
>
>* develop a template to facilitate metadata creation based on a similar
>  template development e.g. the Nordic Metadata Project (the archival
>  community is already using similar templates which assist in records
>  management and retrieval); and
> 
>* use the registration details from this seminar to communicate
>  decisions and activities to interested parties.
>
>An unsolicited comment from received afterwards from John Tipler, Dept of
>Primary Industries, Queensland  said: "There was value in the whole day and
>if you asked "more?" I would queue up.  I attended the workshop with certain
>goals in mind: to determine if meta was *the* way; will DC become, if not
>*the* standard, at least a standard which would allow me to catalogue and
>index information on our web server; what 3rd party support will there
>be, if any;  etc., etc.  I came away well satisfied." 
>
>The National Library of Australia will endeavour to keep all delegates
>aware of progress in the implementation of the recommendations from the
>Seminar and in any other metadata developments in Australia.
>
>Further information on the National Metadata Seminar can be found at URL
>http://www.nla.gov.au/niac/metadata.html.  The Dublin Core home page is
>located at URL http://www.oclc.org:5046/research/dublin_core/
>
>This report of the Seminar is based on material supplied by Rachel Jakimow,
>National Initiatives and Collaboration Branch, National Library of Australia.
>
>
>Warwick Cathro
>National Library of Australia
>****************************************************************************
>
>


----- End Included Message -----